George F. Bond

rdf:langString George F. Bond

rdf:langString George Foote Bond, MD

rdf:langString Papa Topside

rdf:langString George Foote Bond, MD

rdf:langString United States of America

rdf:langString Navy Commendation Medal, Legion of Merit with two gold stars

rdf:langString NOAA drawing of Dr. Bond and the SEALAB habitat. Captain George Bond's Discoveries Enable Divers to Stay Below Indefinitely

rdf:langString The effect of helium on a human voice

rdf:langString Helium article read with helium.ogg

rdf:langString "note"

rdf:langString Papa Topside

rdf:langString Effect of helium on a human voice

rdf:langString Captain George Foote Bond (November 14, 1915 – January 3, 1983) was a United States Navy physician who was known as a leader in the field of undersea and hyperbaric medicine and the "Father of Saturation Diving". While serving as Officer-in-Charge at the Naval Medical Research Laboratory in Groton, Connecticut, he conducted his earliest experiments into saturation diving techniques.In 1957, Bond began the Genesis project to prove that humans could in fact withstand prolonged exposure to different breathing gases and increased environmental pressures. Once saturation is achieved, the amount of time needed for decompression depends only on the depth and gases breathed. This was the beginning of saturation diving and the US Navy's Man-in-the-Sea Program. The first two phases of Project Genesis involved exposing animals to saturation in various breathing gases. In 1962, interest in helium-oxygen atmospheres for manned space flights made Phase C possible. Phase C involved saturation of three subjects at one atmosphere (surface) in a 21.6% oxygen, 4% nitrogen, and 74.4% helium environment for six days. In phase D experiments at the United States Navy Experimental Diving Unit in 1963, the subjects performed the world's first saturation dive at a depth of 100 feet of seawater (fsw) in a 7% oxygen, 7% nitrogen, and 86% helium environment for 6 days. In phase E trials in 1963 divers were saturated for 12 days at 198 fsw breathing 3.9% oxygen, 6.5% nitrogen and 89.6% helium. A 27-hour linear ascent was made from saturation. "Papa Topside" Bond initiated and served as the Senior Medical Officer and principal investigator of the US Navy SEALAB program. SEALAB I was lowered off the coast of Bermuda in 1964 to a depth of 192 fsw below the sea's surface. The experiment was halted after 11 days due to an approaching tropical storm. SEALAB I proved that saturation diving in the open ocean was a viable means for expanding our ability to live and work in the sea. The experiment also provided engineering solutions to habitat placement, habitat umbilicals, humidity, and helium speech descrambling. SEALAB II was launched off the coast of California in 1965 to assess the feasibility of utilizing saturation techniques and tools accomplish a variety of tasks that would be difficult or impossible to accomplish by repeated dives from the surface." In addition to physiological testing, the divers tested new tools, methods of salvage, and an electrically heated drysuit. SEALAB III was placed in water three times as deep to test new salvage techniques and for oceanographic and fishery studies. On February 15, 1969, SEALAB III was lowered to 610 fsw (185 m), off San Clemente Island, California. The habitat soon began to leak and six divers were sent to repair it, but they were unsuccessful. During the second attempt, aquanaut Berry L. Cannon died, and the program came to a halt.